Greed, selfishness are not virtues

President Donald Trump wants to abolish what the elderly call the “death tax.” The official name is estate tax. This tax applies to the estates of the very rich, less than 1 percent of Americans. Ninety-nine percent of us won’t pay this tax. Upon a married couple’s death, the first $10.9 million of their estate is not taxed. The amount above is. For individuals, the first $5.45 million is not taxed. It’s estimated the revenue from this tax for 2016 will be $21 billion.

This estate tax was established in 1916 under Republican President “Teddy” Roosevelt. It was assess on a handful of very rick people to avoid expensive concentration of wealth.

On May 2, 2005, Mortimer B. Zuckerman, editor-in-chief of U.S. News & World Report said, “eliminating the estate tax on the wealthiest Americans is both reckless fiscal policy and deeply unfair to the rest of the nation.”

Warren Buffett state that repealing the estate tax would “be a terrible mistake.”

President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “The test of progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”

Greed and selfishness are not virtues.

Trump is also trying to weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It was established to protect consumers from abusive practices by banks, mortgage companies, credit card issuers, pay day lenders, debt collectors and others. The bureau’s actions have led to millions in settlements for people like you and I.

Trump is also trying to stop a new rule that would require financial advisers and brokers to put their clients’ interests ahead of their own. It is referred to as the “fiduciary rule.” The rule is designed specifically with the interest of working people in mind. The rule would prevent investment pros from steering clients toward high-commission investments that might not be in the clients’ interest. It’s estimated that $17 billion was lost to retirement funds without fiduciary rule.

Wayne Rabas

Kewaunee

This article originally appeared on Wisconsin: Your letters: March 18